“This feels like Christmas.” Bella told me as we parted ways in Seattle. I was going to meet someone, and she was shopping in boutiques. We would rejoin for dinner, then back to Alaska.
“What do you mean?” I was holding her hand and we were doing a little window-shopping. It was all very normal, even if we weren’t.
“Getting to give really good presents to everyone.”
“You do have a budget.” I pointed out, smiling at her. I knew what she meant, though. It was more fun, as grown-ups, to think of the look on the face of the one receiving the gift. I had some doozies picked out, myself.
“I won’t break the bank. I don’t think I could! I’m not used to having this much to spend.”
“Enjoy.” I kissed her, lingering on her lips and wondering when the other shoe would fall. Life was too happy, and it worried me.
She laughed, and I slipped into an abandoned alleyway to bubble and go meet my unsavory connection. It was like putting on a mask, and one that was beginning to not fit terribly well. Had I changed that much, since she came into my life?
Shopping Spree
Bella watched Lom fade into the shadows and pondered his other side, as she turned back to the shops she was going to visit. He had been something out of her knowledge, before, a cross between bounty hunter and cop. She wasn’t certain where he was going, but she vividly remembered meeting a ghoul here in Seattle during that first mad flight to Underhill.
Now she was trying to learn how to do it. She wrinkled her nose at the shop window, not seeing what was behind the glass, only her reflection. She had managed it once, but she wasn’t so sure she could do it again. Sighing, she went in the shop and tried to re-focus on the task at hand.
Once she submerged herself in her pleasant task, time flew, and her phone alarm reminded her that it was time to go meet Lom. She paused in a quiet alcove to bubble herself to the agreed-on meeting place, sending all her purchases to the cabin, magically. This, she had to admit, was the only way to shop.
He was waiting for her, sitting in the lobby reading, where he’d found the book she had no idea. But it gave her a thrill to see his face light up as he came to her.
“Find everything, dear?” Bella asked, leaning into his kiss.
“All satisfactory. And you?”
“Yes, I had fun.”
They had decided to get something that wasn’t common Underhill. Lom wasn’t fond of sushi, but tappenyaki was good, and Bella wanted eel and octopus rolls.
“Tomorrow night...” He looked at her, raising an eyebrow slightly.
“I’m looking forward to it.” She assured him, smiling broadly. “You needn’t worry about me.”
He stretched a hand out across the table. “I’m worried about me. How shall I please you, Princess?”
Bella squeezed his hand. “By being yourself, my Lord.”
After dinner they slipped into the darkness, emerging in a now-cluttered cabin. It was still twilight here, and Bella called her cousin Dan to come with his truck. They would set the gym up tonight, and in the morning would be the ceremony, and a day-long party. Bella was nervously worrying that they had tried to do too much, too soon.
Dan took Lom to Mike’s to grab a bit of sleep, and she went back to her cabin. She didn’t know if she could sleep, but after she had tidied up and made the bed up fresh, she did fall into it for a while. The alarm dragged her out of it, but once she was awake enough to remember what the day was, she was wide awake.
Bella learned that battles have a lot in common with weddings. What is happening right around you, you know. There are foggy spots where emotion floods your being until you lose the memories. Everything moves at high speed, until suddenly there is a moment when it is in slow-motion. The ceremony slipped by in one of those fugue states.
The next thing Bella was aware of, she was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Lom, a line of friends and relatives passing by, giving them well-wishes and being given a gift. For the men, he had come up with four cases of Mosin Nagant rifles, which were unusual enough to be a novelty to them. For the women, she had found beautifully made blankets, wool, but embroidered. For a very few people, they had something special, however.
One of those crystal-clear moments was Lom handing Dan’s gift to him. The .600 Nitro Express dwarfed Lom as he handed it over, and Dan’s eyes widened.
“Oh, you shouldn’t...” he started to object.
“Hush, or I’ll take it back. Here,” Lom dropped two boxes of ammo into Dan’s other hand. “Put it to good use. It’s hard to find.”
Bella chuckled at the look on Dan’s face. “At least you can hit what you aim at. For you...” she turned to Tex.
He looked at the book she put in his hand and laughed uproariously. “Marksmanship for Beginners? That bad?”
Dan elbowed him, “Fred’s still complaining about it.”
Lom handed him a rifle. “I’m told to stand behind you when you fire it.”
They moved on, still chuckling. Bella wondered how they would explain that story, they couldn’t talk about the magic. Of all the people here in the gymnasium, only a handful knew what Lom was, and where they were living.
She was beginning to ache from standing and smiling, when the end of the line, the most important people, drew near. Aunt Mya and Aunt Min, standing together, both got from her hand an exquisitely woven blanket. They couldn’t know it had been made Underhill, and despite the whole thing being able to pass through a ring, it would be the warmest blanket possible. One bore the design of a Phoenix, the other had a field of flowers so detailed it was like a painting.
The two women exclaimed over them, and hugged both Bella, who cried a little with them, and Lom, who was stiffly uncomfortable, but, Bella observed, faintly pleased. Then it was her grandfather who stepped up, and for him Bella had a blackthorn walking-stick, topped with a dragon’s head. The ruby eyes could be mistaken for glass, they were so large.
“I’m not old yet.” The tall man leaned on it, experimentally. His smile was mostly hidden under the sweeping mustache he favored.
“Well, one day...” Bella demurred. He laughed, kissed her cheek awkwardly, and shook Lom’s hand.
Raven was next, and last. He looked a bit uncomfortable, to Bella’s surprise. “Hurry it up, I’m hungry,” he groused.
“I thought you wanted a present, Uncle?” Bella teased him.
“What am I going to do with more stuff?”
Lom turned and opened the last box. “What would you wish for, Uncle?” Bella asked him.
“Peace and quiet,” he winked at her. “But I’d settle for supper.”
Lom shut the box. “We’ll wait, then...”
“No, no...” Raven scrunched his face into a mighty scowl. “Get it over with.”
Lom reached deep into the box and brought out a bowl. Simple, glazed brown and with the fingerprints of the maker visible if you looked hard enough, it was a fitting dish for Raven’s cabin. Raven, for the first time in Bella’s memories of him, looked surprised.
“Is this...” He cradled it gently in his two hands.
“I’ll explain later.” Bella told him softly. She couldn’t very well tell him what it was, and how to scry with it, in front of everyone.
He nodded, and Bella gave him the velvet-lined wooden box it was to be stored in. The Lom handed him a second, smaller gift, this one wrapped.
“Oh? Two?”
Despite his protestations, Raven was smiling broadly as he unwrapped it. Inside was an enameled cylinder with a lid on one end. He opened it, and jumped as three silk dragons leapt out at his face. Then he roared with laughter as he realized what they had done.
“You pulled trick on me!”
Bella giggled. “You are the trickster, it seemed apt.”
Small children, drawn by the commotion, came running.
“Quick! Show me...” Raven scooped up two of the spring-loaded toys, and Lom let Bella run interference while he and Raven turned their backs and shoved th
e little dragons back into their box. Then he and Bella slipped away while Raven started telling the children a story.
“I thought he was hungry?” Lom asked, looking back at the old man, who was capering about with his arms spread like wings at the moment.
“He was giving us a hard time.” Bella smiled.
“Do you think he liked them?”
She nodded. “Let’s eat, and then find someplace quiet...”
They were seated with her aunts, and Bella wondered if they would ever get away. Aunt Mya seemed determined to keep Lom talking about their honeymoon plans, with plenty of innuendo that had Bella blushing. Lom was rolling with it, though, and keeping Mya and Min laughing out loud.
He’d gotten them both to the point of tears with a joke when Bella caught a faint wink from him, and she excused herself, knowing he would follow in a few moments. As she made her way to the hall, ostensibly headed for the restrooms, Mike caught her in a quick hug.
“You ok?” He asked gruffly.
“I’m wonderful.” Bella assured him. “He’s very good to me.”
“I see you’re good together. Will you be sticking around a while?”
She shook her head. “We have to do this again with his family, they couldn’t come here. And then we have a job.”
“That kind of job, like...” he jerked a thumb toward Dan, who was talking to Raven.
“Yes.” He had been Underhill, at Tower Baelfire. He frowned. “I dunno about that.”
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” Bella pointed out with a smile. She knew she’d always be the little girl in a braid, with the skinned knee, to him. “And we will be back for a long visit soon. A working honeymoon is not my idea of fun.”
“True. I suppose work needs to be done as it comes, in your business, though.”
She nodded, giving his arm a squeeze and slipping out the door. A few minutes later, Lom came out, catching her hand and drawing her into an empty classroom before bubbling them both.
The bubble popped in her cabin. Bella drew a deep breath. “Whew, I didn’t think that would ever be over.”
“Tired, my dear Princess?” Lom took her in his arms. “We could wait...”
“Oh, don’t you even! I have been looking forward to this night for... A long time.”
“We’re alone, right?” Lom looked around suspiciously.
Bella laughed. “Just the two of us.”
The wedding night wasn’t everything they had hoped for, in the little log cabin, under a quilt hand-sewn by her grandmother. It was more than either of them had dreamt.
They fell asleep holding hands, her sleeping on her side, and him on his back. Tangled up together was wonderful, but for sleeping... they kept that light link all night through.
Blessed Union
We had decided to take a day, not letting anyone know where we were, and just be together. It wouldn’t have been hard for the Alaskan contingent to figure out our location, but they were polite enough to stay away. Mother, Underhill, was no doubt champing at the bit for our return, but a day wasn’t going to make a difference. That wedding wasn’t about us... well, yes, it was, but not the machinations.
Coffee, and a reprise of the two of us sitting at her table. She had started a fire in the woodstove to ward off the chill, and the slightly musty odor of the cabin. We hadn’t noticed it the night before.
“This is a change.” I commented, smiling across the table at her, a plate of fresh pancakes in between us, rather than that attaché case with the sheaf of Underhill papers and forms.
“I like it better.” She sipped her coffee. “And hopefully after your time with Raven, this isn’t too weak.”
“Raven’s coffee is a trial to the soul. You don’t regret it?”
She somehow grasped that I wasn’t talking about the coffee with my question. “Not a bit. It’s been disconcerting at times, and I don’t expect that feeling to go away. But...”
“You remember the first time, when you got your wings?”
Bella smiled. “I was so stressed about everything else, I flipped out over that one thing. I like it, now that I’m used to them. Queenship... that I am still not sure of.”
“You want out?” I was hungry, and her cooking was good, so I paid attention to that, too.
“No... I don’t think I do. After what happened, with Jenny, I feel like I’m needed to make sure Court doesn’t blame humans. And they could use shaking up. Devon’s age-mates have nothing to motivate them, and...”
I wondered what she had been observing with the younger ones. Other than Dorothy and Devon, I had paid little attention to the young fairies and pixies.
“I wondered, you have this place, and... it might be a while before you get away, again.”
She nodded, frowning. “I’ll miss it, but Lom...”
Bella got up and came around the table to sit on my lap. “Home is where you are, as trite as that sounds.”
“How about where I am is up there?” I pointed at the loft, and the bed. She laughed, and followed me up the steps.
We spent the rest of the day pretending the rest of the world, and especially monsters and our families, didn’t exist. It was idyllic, and yet, by the end of it, I was tense. I didn’t think Bella noticed, but then as she was serving us both dessert, and by that, I do mean food, she cuddled up next to me on the couch.
“Want to talk about it?” She prompted softly.
“Yes, but I wanted to wait until tomorrow. This was supposed to be a timeless day.”
“Life isn’t always like that, and we have years to work on perfection.”
I looked down at her in dismay. “It wasn’t perfect?”
She laughed hard enough to have to put down her bowl of apple crisp.
“Let’s go home.” Bella suggested when she had subsided to giggles and reassurances with non-verbal methods.
“What?” I had, yet again, lost my cool when she was around. I’d thought it was bad when she was apparently oblivious to me, the woman, trying, was a menace.
“Home, Underhill, sleep in your bed tonight.” She explained.
“Our bed. Why?”
“We can surprise Ellie and Ash in the morning. And I am about out of supplies, here, I had only gotten a few things.”
“You’re tired of cooking for me already?” I teased her.
“I want to sleep in in the morning and not have to make breakfast.” She stuck her tongue out at me.
“I warned you about that, girl.” With a playful growl, I pinned her to the couch.
It was quite a bit later that she bubbled us up and took us back to Underhill. We’d packed our few things and she sent them to my armory, showing me the spell she used.
“Very interesting.” I took the last pack and sent it off, feeling the spell and what it took to do it. “I never tried this, myself, too much magic, before...”
She nodded. Our bubble popped out at the little vine maple glade, and that made me smile. “Recreating a moment?”
“Maybe.” With that half-smile of enigma on her face, she took my hand and we stepped through the doorway together.
I looked down at her. The wings, for some reason, made me absurdly happy. “When we get back to the house, don’t let on my magic is back?”
She nodded. “Better to let them underestimate you, at Court.”
“My wise woman.” I bubbled us and took us straight to my bedroom, which was empty and the house, as we poised for a moment listening, was equally still.
“We weren’t expected back yet.”
“Let’s take advantage of that.” I held out my hand, and she followed me.
I led her down and into my armory. “We aren’t going to stay down here long. But I wanted to make sure next time you need a weapon, you don’t have to pilfer it.”
Bella giggled while I was keying the wards to her, although some of that was the way I was tickling her every time she got near enough to touch. I had discovered a new pleasure in life.
“This is a pleasant surprise.” I sat and Bella next to me, picking up the pot to pour coffee for both of us. “May as well report, Devon, has the Dukedom gone to hell in a handbasket during my absence?”
“You look great, Uncle Lom.” He eyed me with wide brown eyes. I was probably more tanned and weathered than he had ever seen me.
“I feel much better. Some time to live simply was just the ticket.”
Ellie slid plates in front of us, and I looked up at her. Bella reached out and took her hand, and Ellie’s eyes dropped onto the simple gold band Bella was wearing on her finger. She broke into a broad smile.
Devon watched the two women hugging with bewilderment. “What did I miss?”
“Eat,” I chuckled, “I’ll explain later. After you report.”
“Oh, yeah.” He took a bite.
I held up a hand to forestall speech from him. “After you eat, we’ll talk.”
Somehow Bella got Ellie and Ash to sit with us, and it turned into a cozy family meal, with everyone talking at once. Devon, it transpired, had managed just fine without me.
“Although,” he frowned, “Mother and Grandmother aren’t telling me something, about Court. I’ve been too busy, and Dorothy has been out at the Manor too little to have time to tell me anything. I think her family...” He sighed.
I liked the little pixie who looked like she would be part of my family in time. “Do I need to talk to them?”
He looked horrified. “I don’t think that will help, really.”
“I promise not to threaten,” I assured him, grinning. “Am I that much of a boogeyman?”
“Well maybe not, now that you don’t have...” He stopped dead, mouth hanging open. “Oh, I don’t mean...”
I shook my head. “I’m not worried about it any more, Dev. You shouldn’t, either. Do you know when your Mother and Grandmother should be here?”
He looked relieved at the change in subject. “I think after lunch. They said something about arranging last-minute details for the wedding.”
Trickster Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 2) Page 19
